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Shakes
Shakes Known Information Shakes has been among The Returned since they first appeared, though he wasn't initially himself a Returned; in their first encounter he was a servant of Valdir, a mighty antagonist of the Returned in their early days. Valdir maintained his power over Shakes through a combination of torture and mind control, a process which left the subject's heart and memory completely hollow. Though Shakes nearly succeeded in his mission to steal a powerful artifact from Solace, the Black Sands Hourglass, The Returned awoke within him a hidden spark of willpower. He escaped his master's control and, after a quick and bloody meeting with Valdir's sword and the afterlife, sought refuge among the other returned. He has since attempted to be a positive force in society, to earn his place among the only friendly faces he can remember. As an illiterate mute, he stands out for both how silent he is and for how talkative he is (using his hands, whistles, and body language). His hobbies include grandiose posturing, sitting in trees, and suggesting to others that he be called "King Shakes." He has a strange affinity for oranges, of which he seems to be able to produce a limitless supply. He is also a skilled artist, and has applied his talents towards the design of the Flag of Solace, as well as the paper currency of Solace. He appears on the 5 Silver note (the "Shakesnote") in an iconic self-portrait, with an orange in his hand and a crown on his head. Shakes is a Grand Master Diviner; supporting this, he has the unique natural ability to sense magic without using mana, which he does by engaging all five senses, including taste and smell. He is also very adept at blocking divination, and is able to do so with much greater ease than other diviners. He often provides warning of approaching threats, or insists on certain times to rest over others. His primary focus object is a sketchbook, within which he draws his premonitions. The drawings are usually cloaked in symbolism and metaphor, making them difficult to interpret. Shakes is also a known Prophetic Dreamer and Dream Mage, a formerly dead magic which he was the leader in reviving. He was the first Grandmaster Dream Mage to come to power in the age of Adelrune. Dream powers that he has demonstrated include dreamwalking, astral projection into the waking world, manifesting objects from the dreaming, summoning people and objects into the dreaming, possession of waking people, mass possession with memory sharing, and a powerful destructive energy blast. Many of these powers have been subverted or subdued since the awakening of Ayan, but he has found great utility within his new limitations. Among the people of this age, his knowledge of dreaming, nightmares, and the geography of the dream realm is unparalleled, but this knowledge is trapped in a body that has difficulty in communicating it. Shakes' dream powers increase with his levels of distress and the depth of the night. It is a common misconception that his tongue is missing, when his actual affliction is a hopelessly destroyed voice box. This untruth continues to circulate despite the frequency with which he licks things. Many healers have offered to repair his voice, but he has refused each time. He has never explained why he does not wish to attempt the procedure, but the ferocity of his declination implies he believes he has a good reason. His arms and legs are covered with deep scars. Presumably, the rest of his body has more of the same. These scars, and the condition of his voice, are assumed to have been gained in the service of Valdir. Shakes does no remember this trauma, though the townspeople of Solace have personally and viscerally learned of their origins through other means. Shakes does not feel pain in his limbs, and regularly uses them to block weapon attacks in combat. On the battlefield, he is noted for his ability to creep behind enemy lines and disrupt spellcasters and cohesion by ambush. He is also a combat mimic, able to replicate the force of any attack thrown at him, though he notably lacks the bladecasting skill. He used to explain these powers of mimicry as a function of powerful mime; being trapped in a box or holding imps at bay with an invisible wall uses the same kind of willpower that allows him to surround his arm and tiny daggers with the force of a dragon's claws. This willpower technique also allows him to use oranges as melee and ranged weapons... to devastating effect. Given that strength in the dreaming directly correlates with willpower, it is possible that these practices are related. Shakes is not one of those "nigh-invulnerable" older returned; he is incapacitated in combat startlingly often. Having a line of enemies between himself and the healers is also not good for his longevity, and blocking with his arms and legs makes him vulnerable to crushing blows that are meant to break bones. Shakes' combat style is half fighting, and half flying, rolling, and bleeding. Despite his fragility, he is one of the leading ambushers at the disposal of the Returned, and is able to sustain repeated sorties of powerful back-line strikes through even the longest battles. His right arm is a replacement. When he accidentally touched the bare skin of the effendal-eden-curse-plague-bearer, the death quickly crawled up his limb until it was hacked off at the shoulder; the tough flesh and bone of his tortured hand and forearm prevented clean amputation there. Regeneration could not bring back that which was lost to Eden, so channelers and surgeons pulled an arm off of a recently deceased swordsman and attached it to Shakes. Because the swordsman had died fighting the returned, the remnants of his spirit inhabiting the arm wreaked havoc for months until Shakes got it back under control - through corporal punishment sufficient to return it to his original scarred state. When Shakes was reunited with his older sister, Spira Denwyn, he finally learned his real name. She had died seven years prior while searching for him, and returned a few years after him; thus, her younger brother was suddenly her peer, and disturbing besides. She was at first repulsed by the seemingly ruined creature her baby brother had become, but eventually came to terms with this reality, and learned to appreciate the place he had gained in their frontier society on Tear. Spira is currently a captive of Demenor, the demon-lord of nightmares. The motivations for this were originally to lure Shakes into the dreaming. It eventually worked. Though Shakes has since returned to the plane of Reality, his sister remains in Demenor's terrifying care. He has developed a powerful romance with Rhinn, a colish girl of similar dreamlike abilities. He met Rhinn very early in his time among the returned, and found a kinship there. Rhinn was originally a charge of Conroy, a smuggler who enjoyed Rhinn's prophetic abilities and attempted to capitalize on them. Though one might expect Connor to be a poor guardian, he did his best to look after his unpredictable and flighty golden goose. After Connor's death, Shakes did his best to protect Rhinn, who at this point was among his oldest surviving friends. As they spent more time together, Shakes felt and returned what grew to become a storybook first love for both of them. In the fourth year of Adelrune, Demenor swept Solace into a massive nightmare of a dystopian future. In this future, Beleathru had won the War of Radiance, and nearly all human resistance had been wiped out. The humans that were left were either allies or slaves of the demons. Shakes had risen to become King of Solace, alongside his Queen, Amarantha. Shakes ruled with an iron fist, and he was hated by the public. On this night, Solace was host to a slave auction of captured resistance fighters and criminals, Returned among them. However, the truth was more complicated; ruling with an iron fist was the only way to keep Solace alive in Beleathru's world, and Shakes was far from a heartless despot, he was one of the primary benefactors of the Resistance. This secret was so well kept that half of the resistance forces in Solace that night were there to assassinate "the evil King Shakes." Even Amarantha's handmaidens, who suspected their king was secretly soft, plotted to kill him. As the slave auction commenced, Shakes emptied the royal coffers trying to save Returned from demonic rival bidders. His goal was to rescue them, and to secret them back to the resistance. In the end, the nightmare was dispelled, and Shakes' good heart was revealed. Even in the darkest dystopian future, Shakes will be fighting for the goodness in mortal hearts. For this reason, many who survived the first Dark Future still call him "The One True King." In the sixth year of Adelrune, Shakes departed from this plane of existence. Being a diviner, he knew that his time among the returned was coming to a close, but he did not know why, or how. His affairs in order, he hosted a performance in the dreaming for his closest friends and various curious spirits of the dreaming. At the end of the concert, Demenor's agents informed him that he was needed; Ayan, a far more dangerous force to the existence of all, was stirring back to power. Demenor offered to teach Shakes lost knowledge of dream magic to aid in the coming war. This was the long dark road that Shakes had forseen, and he already knew what his choice would be. When the concert ended, the guests stirred from where they had gone to sleep in the tavern. Where Shakes and Rhinn had slumbered were small piles of black sand. Two years later, as Ayan's powers bled further into reality, King Shakes awoke. What has he been up to since? Status In the second general election of Solace, he was successfully seated on the council as a human representative. During his term he held 5 pins of status. On the council he argued fiercely for human interests and to preserve the voting power of citizens with no pins of status. He chose not to run in the third council election, citing increasingly painful premonitions as health reasons. Shakes still remained politically active as a proxy and elected seat on subsequent councils. Appointed as Allerm's proxy on the Third Council "just to piss off bloody Sangues," he was later re-elected in full after Allerm sacrificed himself to seal the rift in the Void. He used this brief time to completely reform the laws that governed the Council, and banish much of the structural racial divide between human and effendal that he had observed and even participated in over the years. Because the changes would draw more specialized, worldly, and literate candidates than himself, Shakes thought this would make his place in politics obsolete; the new laws were a beautiful swan song to his involvement in council affairs. During the Fourth Council, he accepted an offer from Sir Wrathmore Bane to act as proxy to the Master of Arms, the only position that did not require literacy. So much for graceful departures. He retains 3 non-hereditary pins of status according to the first and second charters of Solace, and a paper crown that denotes 30-something pins of status. He is a formally adopted brother of Duke Sychariel Paloma, also a first-night Returned. This places Shakes high among Dacian nobility, regardless of his legislated status on Tear. Before his tenure as Demenor's disciple, he held the post of King Storyteller for the Solace Bardic College. He has also received letters from the Celestine Postmaster addressed to "The Great Orange." During the tenure of Kenrin Arakai and Lady Katarina as Governors of Port Frey, Shakes has served as the official Steward of Port Frey. He performs any service required for the interests of Solace at any cost. He also provides counsel and support when needed (or not needed). He holds this position currently. During the ninth year of Adelrune, Shakes was selected to become a special investigator for the Port Frey guard. He is mostly assigned to cases of murder and high-profile thefts. Having such a powerful diviner and inscrutable assassin in this position is meant to be a deterrent. He holds this position currently. Allies Shakes considers all of the returned to be allies, and fights tooth and nail to protect and help them as a whole. There are exceptional individuals and groups to which he has forged deep bonds: Lord Sychariel of Poloma - Shakes is an adopted member of House Paloma. He was welcomed to the family as a valued artist and performer by Lord Sychariel, with whom he has a close bond. Lord Sychariel has since retired from Solace to run Port Frey, a holding of House Poloma. Spira Denwyn - his sister. The Denwyns are a minor Dacian mercantile house, with some land holdings and a vineyard. Spira was once betrothed to Sychariel's oldest brother, but she dodged the engagement to search for her missing younger brother. The Barwalkers - a tactical group composed of Euridice, Iyonger, Allerm, and Shakes. Their teamwork went beyond the battlefield, and they found themselves acting as kingmakers in the pre-council era of Solace. Along with Sychariel, Corvus, and Diamante, the barwalkers forged the compromises, laws, and treaties that created the First Council. They were so named because "a priest, a dragon, a warden, and a mime" sounds like a group that would walk into a bar. Nadine Returned - As a formerly maligned outcast himself, Shakes has an affinity for returned with Nadine heritage. Though they were initially viewed with suspicion by others in Solace, Shakes believed fervently in their capacity for loyalty, brotherhood, and love. He continues to admire returned Nadine for their tenacity, and for the many positive contributions they have made to Solace despite petty opposition. Those who are quick or patient enough to interpret his language find a fast friend in Shakes. They know who they are. They make his time in Solace worth it. Rhinn, around whom Shakes loses all of his suave demeanor and becomes a complete mess. Shakes' one stipulation for training under Demenor was that Rhinn be allowed to stay with them. When he returned to Solace to fight Ayan, so did she. Enemies Valdir - Shake's former master. It is believed that Valdir ordered Shakes to do many terrible things; at least, Shakes hopes they were orders. Shakes remembers very little of this time, and he rarely discusses what he can remember. Hope Lightbringer - a demonic servant of Valdir, and personally responsible for the many tortures inflicted upon Shakes. This was discovered in a vivid dream shared by the entire population of Solace. This event caused Shakes to forget all memories tied to the source of his wounds, while everyone else in the shared dream discovered them. He has since been told by others of this event, but even with the evidence of its reality covering his body, he feels disconnected personally from this story that just happens to feature himself. Demenor - The captor of Shakes' sister, and his most recent master. Shakes has discussed his time training under Demenor with very few people. While he seems stronger since his training began, in some respects, he seems significantly weaker. Ayan - the Red Dream, whose power and threat to reality itself is so great that the ripples of his coming have defined Shakes' entire journey. Quotes "..." - Shakes saying pretty much anything. Rumors Eurydice and Shakes were engaged to be married before Demenor claimed her for the Dreaming. Though she denies it, and he doesn't remember it, there were at least a dozen witnesses to her breathlessly accepting his dramatic and heartfelt proposal on the field of battle. It's widely believed that Shakes is the creator behind the Solace Trading Cards, a popular curiosity sold by the makers of the Assassin newspaper throughout the kingdoms. Some believe Shakes to be actual royalty from Dace, separated from his crown by an ocean and a rubbish memory. This rumor has been helped by his presence on the currency. Among notes in circulation, it is common enough to find the word "Lord" scratched out and "King" written over it. While irksome to the true royals of the world, it is nonetheless very amusing to Shakes, and presumably to the mischievous individuals who perpetuate the trend. Shakes has (or had) in his possession an enchanted flute that could be used to compel and cause irritating pain to the Demon known as Hope Lightbringer. He played it numerous times to dramatic effect, and although he seemed amused, none are sure if he was aware or ignorant of the fact that it would cause her to suffer. It has been rumored that a particular Effendal if forced to wed a human had chosen Shakes to be her human counterpart, being asked why she shrugged and merely stated: "He makes me smile and that amuses me." For three months, Shakes was trapped in the dreaming; this event nearly killed him. Some believe that he was trapped in the dream world because his engagement to Euridice angered her boyfriend, Demenor. After the nightmare event, there is concern about the aspirations of "King" Shakes and his desire for power, having once again been elected to Council. Is there any end to his ambition? Does he truly seek more than a cardboard crown? If you see an orange where it doesn't belong, you know Shakes has been there. Rumor has it that Shakes has two shadows; one normal one and one crimson in color. Is actually Eden Rumor has it, that once Shakes' crown comes off, he goes CRAZYYYY Rumor has it, he has a bag with a tiny portal connected to a orange merchant's supply. This allows him to summon an orange whenever he wishes, but is too kind to generally abuse this artifact. Shakes is V Shakes looks very good in shades of fall Rumor has it that Shakes was Victorias most secret brothel worker, only showing off his true talents of dance in the celebration of her life, which was indeed magnificent for those who saw. Rumor has it that Shakes has a beautiful singing voice. This is not the only Adelrune that Shakes spends time in, though it is his native one. Through the Dreaming Shakes wanders into many different realities with different versions of Adelrune. Some are better. Most are much, much worse. Rumors has it Shakes can snap and create fruit at will Soundtrack Muse - Butterflies and Hurricanes Muse - Take a Bow Oren Lavie - Dream Within a Dream Her Name is Calla - Dreamland Patrick Watson - Daydreamer Inspiration Shakes is my first LARP character. John convinced me to come to the first game of Twin Mask by rebutting my argument, "But I don't have a costume," with, "Just come as a mime." I'd been a mime for Halloween a few months earlier, and I'd had a blast. John hooked me with this. We worked out a relatively simple backstory with huge holes in it (thanks to shattered memory). This allowed us to evolve the character as my interest and investment in the game expanded. Whenever I felt things were getting too easy, I'd use a downtime action to have a new dream, and John would deliver a memory (usually awful) about Shakes' past. This gave me the fuel I needed to stay tortured and angsty, and has kept the character fresh throughout his long tenure. His build was originally designed around passive skills that required no calls (hence armored limbs and divination) so I could stay completely silent, but I eventually deviated from this. 10-strikes and mimic calls with a boffer orange are totally worth it. The oranges were a mercy and a necessity; my first game, I was woefully unprepared, and I survived mostly on a huge bowl of oranges and clementines that somebody had left out for public consumption. I'd be eating one and stuffing another into my pocket constantly. Being a player with no weapons and a character with no proficiencies, when combat found me, all Shakes had were oranges. For the first half a year, Shakes would sneak up on enemies and tap them on the back with citrus fruit for zero damage, taunt them, and run. His targets would either be distracted and dropped by actual combatants, or they would turn and give furious chase and he'd run them around for a while. The strategy became his signature style, and the orange a signature symbol.